Expo 86

wolf parade are back. late last year, the members of the montreal band took a break from their various other bands (sunset rubdown, handsome furs, swan lake, moonface) and reconvened to work on their third album, which is titled 'expo 86'. the album was recorded and mixed at hotel2tango, with howard bilerman, in late february and early march of 2010. 'expo 86' is a much tighter and more collaborative record than 'at mount zoomer'. boeckner and krug have successfully combined both of their musical styles on each song rather than continuing zoomer's problem of a song-by-song trade-off. 'expo 86' successfully combines boeckner's penchant for fuzzy dance beats and krug's love for dream-like, indecipherable lyrics and baroque song construction. the album is filled with highlights, but the songs that stick out are album-opener 'cloud shadow on the mountain', lead-single 'what did my lover say? (it always had to go this way)', and four-on-the-floor rocker 'yulia'. on sub pop.